VIJAYAWADA: Prakasam district is facing the worst drinking water crisis in the State. The district, which does not have any major water source, is largely dependent on rains, groundwater and the Nagarjuna Sagar Right Canal to some extent.
However, due to scanty rainfall last monsoon and with less than expected quantum of water being released from Nagarjuna Sagar, most of the water tanks in the district under RWS do not have sufficient water to last the next two months. “It is true that Prakasam district is facing the worst drinking water crisis in the State. As many as 227 villages of the total 357 in the State where drinking water is being supplied through tankers are in Prakasam district alone,” T Prabhakar Rao, Chief Engineer of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, said.
Severity of the water crisis is also found in parts of Nellore, Guntur, Kadapa and Chittoor districts. Compared to last year, Rayalseema region is in a comfortable position. Same is the case with North Andhra and the twin Godavari districts. There are a few villages in western parts of Krishna district which are experiencing drinking water shortage.
“We have proposed Summer Contingency Plans with an outlay of `103 crore and have taken up repair works of RWS tanks in the district with `20 crore. Further, `1 lakh was released to every mandal to meet the expenses of emergency motor repairs which are common during summer,” the Chief Engineer told Express.
Rural Development Minister Nara Lokesh recently explained in the Legislative Council that a summer action plan was prepared with an outlay of `103.82 crore for the entire State for taking up immediate temporary measures like transportation, hiring of private services, flushing, deepening of borewells, open wells and filling of summer storage tanks.
He said monitoring cells are constituted at the district level to receive complaints on drinking water problems and address them immediately. GPS-enabled mobile app is being implemented for online tracking and monitoring supply of drinking water through tankers to habitations on real-time basis.
Summer blues
Areas facing acute drinking water problem - Prakasam, Nellore, Guntur and Krishna districts
357 - Transportation of drinking water through tanks
227 - Prakasam
58 - Chittoor
23 - Anantapur
19 - Guntur
13 - Kadapa
12 - Krishna
4 - Nellore
1 - Kurnool